Hypocrite
by CSIsnickers101
Summary: Nick is concerned for Sara but she thinks he's overreacting.


Hypocrite

Disclaimer - I don't own CSI.

A/N: Been working on this for a little while. Would have had it finished sooner but we got a puppy and he's needed my attention a lot of the time. Anyway, enjoy.

"Oh, it's you," Sara rolled her eyes at the man standing at her doorstep, choosing to walk away from him.

"Sorry to disappoint you," he sighed, stepping inside his colleagues home and closing the door behind him.

"I already know what your gonna say, Nick," she folded her arms in front of her chest. "I already know why you're here."

"Damn right you know why I'm here," Nick exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips. "What the hell happened today?"

"I was doing my job," she answered simply.

"Have you gone mad?"

"No," she gave him an annoyed look. "Like I've already said, I was doing my job."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked, in frustration. "I had to hear about it from Greg."

"Because I knew you would act like this," she insisted, giving him a pointed stare. "Overreacting just a little bit, don't you think?"

"You could've gotten yourself killed," Nick went on, ignoring her protests.

"But I didn't," she argued. "Look at me. I'm fine. No harm done. Everyone's happy."

_"I have to go in," Sara let out a slow breath as she turned to look at the patiently waiting detective._

"_What?" Brass exclaimed._

"_It's our only option," she continued, straightening her shoulders. "I'm going in."_

"_No, you're not," insisted Brass, giving her a stern look._

"_She wants me to go in, and I don't even want to think about what could happen if I don't," Sara maintained._

"_At least wait till back up arrives," Brass relented._

"_I don't think he's got that much time."_

_Brass looked thoughtful as he weighed up the various different options, obviously preferring the ones that wouldn't put his colleague in any danger. But Sara was off, already striding towards the café entrance. _

"_Wait," Brass called after her and jogged slightly to catch up with her._

"_I'm not just gonna stand here and wait, Jim," she insisted._

"_At least wear this," he looked worried as he handed over a bullet-proof vest. "Please, be safe."_

_Sara nodded, smiling at his concern. "I'll do my best."_

_And with that, she was off, bracing herself for her upcoming task, hearing only the sound of her heart pounding in her chest. She could only hope she would be able to talk some sense into Maria. It wasn't going to be easy, after all Maria was still grieving the loss of her sister so emotions would be running high and the likelihood of her wanted to see sense would probably be very slim, but Sara knew she had to try._

_Sara purposefully left the lab the second she got off the phone with Brass. She had already prepared herself to talk to Maria Carlisle, who would undoubtedly be very distressed. Maria's sister was Anna, the victim in the case Nick and Sara had been assigned too. Naturally Maria had been distraught when she found out her sister had been murdered, and it had been quite a vicious attack. When Sara had asked whether Anna had had any enemies or anyone who would want to hurt her Maria didn't hesitate to answer. She'd told Sara that her sister had had to take a restraining order out against her ex-boyfriend, Andrew, and repeatedly told Sara that he must have been responsible for what had happened to Anna. With no conclusive lines of enquiry being investigated after Andrew's alibi had checked out, Maria had taken the law into her own hands. Now she was in a café with the man she blamed for ending the life of her sister, holding him hostage. She'd let all the other occupants leave unharmed but Andrew wasn't going anywhere. From what the police officers could see from outside Maria had a handgun pressed against the terrified man's chest. Thankfully they had been able to call the café in a bid to establish a line of communication and Maria had answered, but she only wanted to speak to Sara._

"_Maria?" Sara asked softly as she pushed the creaky door open._

"_I knew you'd come," Maria's voice echoed from the back of the room._

_Sara slowly started to walk towards her, taking it a step at a time so she didn't panic Maria._

"_Hand over your gun," demanded Maria._

_Sara gulped, nodding slowly as she pulled her gun out of it's holster and hovering it over the counter. "Will I put it here?"_

_Maria nodded. "Just put it down."_

"_How're you doing, Andrew?" Sara asked the terrified looking man huddled in a corner of the room with his shaky hands in the air as she did as she was instructed._

"_Fine," the man just about managed to croak out._

"_Hey, don't talk to him," Maria yelled._

"_I'm just making sure everyone's still alright," Sara insisted in a calm voice._

"_He won't be for much longer," she spat, releasing the safety switch on her handgun._

"_Just calm down. You don't want to do anything stupid, Maria," Sara maintained, taking another step towards her._

"_Oh, don't I?" she questioned sarcastically. "He killed Anna, he needs to pay."_

"_I didn't do anything," Andrew spoke up, his voice fast and panicky._

"_Shut up," Maria screeched, pointing the gun at his head._

"_Maria, listen to me," Sara began. "If Andrew killed your sister then I promise you we will prove that and he will go to prison. But you've got to let me do my job. It's gonna take a bit of time."_

"_What if you can't prove it? What if it goes to trail and the jury finds him innocent?" Maria exclaimed, her voice thick with emotion._

"_It won't come to that," Sara stepped closer to her. "We will find whoever killed your sister and put him away for a very long time."_

"_Anna! Her name is Anna!" Maria yelled, fighting to keep her tears away. "…was Anna. Her name was Anna."_

"_I'm sorry," she held up her hands, speaking slowly. "We'll find whoever killed Anna."_

"_We already know who murdered Anna," Maria vowed. "He did it. He slit her throat and watched as she took her final breath."_

"_I didn't," Andrew argued. "I would never have hurt her. I loved Anna."_

"_Don't you dare say her name," Maria snapped._

"_Maria, look at me," Sara reached out a hand when she was now within touching distance of the angry woman. "I know you don't want to kill him. So you have to put the gun down."_

"_Oh, I want to kill him," Maria smirked menacingly. "I want him to pay for what he did to my sister."_

"_And he will, trust me," she repeated herself. "But you can't kill him. You can't let him get off with it so easily. If you shoot him he'll be getting away with it, getting off scot free. And you can't want that, surely?"_

_Maria shook her head, the hand holding the gun falling slightly._

"_And you don't want to sink to his level, do you? Killing him would make you no different to him, and it won't bring Anna back," Sara continued, placing her outstretched hand on Maria's forearm._

"_I never thought about it like that…," she mused._

"_What would Anna say?" Sara wondered, giving her a sympathetic look. "She wouldn't want you to do this."_

_Maria nodded, her lower lip beginning to quiver. _

"_Please, put the gun down," Sara said politely. "Do it for Anna."_

"_I'm doing all of this for Anna," Maria protested, pressing down harder on the trigger._

"_But she wouldn't want you to. She'd want us to follow the evidence and find the man who killed her," she stated, speaking softly._

"_This is him," Maria yelled. "He did it."_

_Sara shook her head. "No, he didn't. He has an alibi."_

"_No, he can't…"_

"_He does. He was nowhere near Anna's house when she was murdered. I'm so sorry," she furrowed her brow as she tried to gage Maria's reaction._

"_No…," she sniffed, waving the gun in Andrew's petrified face. "He did it. It had to be him. If it wasn't him then who was it?"_

"_We're working on that," Sara insisted. "And we'll find him. We'll find the bastard that ended Anna's life. It's gonna take time. But it wasn't Andrew."_

"_No… you're wrong…," Maria tried to argued._

"_Give me the gun, Maria."_

"_He really didn't have anything to do with it?" she asked, looking perplexed. "Are you a hundred percent sure?"_

_Sara nodded. "I am."_

_Maria gasped, as tears welled in her eyes. "I'm so sorry…"_

"_Shall we go back to the station now?" Sara asked, looking Maria in the eye. _

_Maria chocked on her sobs as she agreed._

_Sara ever so gently moved her hand down Maria's arm until she felt the cold surface of the 9mm gun Maria owned. Sara searched her eyes before slowly lifting the gun out of her hand, hearing Andrew letting out an audible sigh._

_Armed backup swarmed inside the small and unusually quiet café and were greeted with the slow silent sobs of Maria as Sara made a bid to comfort her. Brass followed the armed officers and quickly took charge and arrested the distressed woman for brandishing a dangerous weapon in a public area. Sara gave her a reassuring glance as Maria was guided away. _

_Sara brought her hands up to rub her face when Maria was out of view, letting out a relieved sigh. She lowered her hands and gave them a sharp shake, trying to still them from their endless quivering._

_She jumped slightly as Brass placed a hand on her shoulder, giving it a slight squeeze. "You did good," he stated softly._

_Sara smiled to herself as he disappeared outside again. She was feeling pretty pleased with herself, as you would expect. She'd just saved a persons live, and she was still in one piece. It was quite frankly a miracle. Truth be told, she had been a complete and utter wreck, talking down an emotional and determined woman. But now she would have to regain her usual composure and get back to the lab to help Nick solve their case once and for all._

And solve the case they did. It turned out to be someone Anna worked with in the stockbroker trade who was embezzling money and defrauding the company. She had found out what was going on and threatened to expose the perpetrator. Her colleague, Malcolm Bishop, had attempted to bribe her into submission but Anna wasn't having anything to do with his law breaking schemes so he murdered her to keep her silent. It was obviously a sad time but also a very happy one for Maria to finally know the truth of what had happened and see the man charged with ending her sisters life, and Andrew was happy to be put in the clear once and for all. The poor man had been all mouth and no trousers. Complete empty threats in the hope of winning his girlfriend back. How he thought that would actually work Sara wasn't quiet sure, but she found it strangely sweet. But surely there was better ways of saying I love you? But regardless, another murderer was behind bars; all in a good days work.

"Sara, you can't do what you did today, it's not our job to get involved in those kind of situations," Nick insisted. "Our job is to collect evidence, nothing more."

"Unless of course it's you," she stated, with a hint of sarcasm. "You're always doing things that you shouldn't, things that aren't in your job description but that's never stopped you before."

"This was different," he protested.

"No it wasn't."

"You can't do that again, you here me? You endangered yourself and others. You can't do that again," he told her firmly.

"Erm, since when do you control me?" Sara asked rhetorically. "What I do is really none of your concern."

"I'm just trying to make you understand, alright? You're not helping anyone by putting yourself in harms way," he insisted.

"Oh my God!" Sara exclaimed, throwing her arms in the air. "You are such a hypocrite."

"How?" Nick asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Do you even have to ask?" she countered. "Why is it okay for you to do it and not me?"

"I never said it was okay," countered Nick.

"But you're the one that usually does that kind of stuff," she argued.

"Well, take it from me, it isn't worth it," he informed her.

"And yet you do it all the time, even after we've told you not to," Sara continued. "You said it, Nick, not me; it's not our job."

"But I never mean to do these things. They just happen, and I end up being a part of it," he argued.

"But it's not our job to be hostage negotiators, bomb squad or anything else," Sara protested. "We're forensic scientists. We deal with the evidence. That's our job."

"You argue your case well, yet you were playing hostage negotiator today," he raised an eyebrow at her. "And that didn't happen by accident."

"That's true. It didn't. But you can't tell me that you're always in the right place at the right time? That you always happen to be there exactly when you're needed?" Sara voice softened.

Nick stumbled over his words. "Maybe not... Always."

"See. I'm always right," she smirked.

"Fine. Maybe I help out sometimes, but only if I think it'll benefit my case," he maintained. "But I never intend to be involved, I just do my best to help."

"But why put yourself through it?" she tilted her head slightly.

"We normally arrive at a scene once the person has already been killed; it's not often we get a chance to save a life," Nick tried to explain himself.

"Why else would I try and talk down an armed woman? For the sheer hell of it?" Sara questioned sarcastically, her voice soft.

"I know you meant well but something could've happened to you," he replied.

"I never thought that far ahead," she answered truthfully. "I just did what I felt was right."

"I do the same," he agreed.

"You can't always play the hero, Nick. You're can't always be there to swoop in and save the day," Sara stated, hoping she didn't sound harsh.

"I can try," his face fell slightly.

"But you're still putting yourself in unnecessary danger," she commented.

"Maybe. But I don't see what the big deal is. We're all on the same side," he shrugged.

"I could say the same thing about what I did today," she stated.

Nick shook his head. "No, that was different."

"Why? Because I'm a woman?" Sara questioned, narrowing her eyes. "Are you being sexist now?"

"No, of course I'm not," he let out an exasperated sigh. "I know you can handle yourself, I know you don't need looking after. You can probably take care of yourself a hell of a lot better than some of the men we work with, but it doesn't change the fact that it scared me."

"That was never my intension," she placed her hand down on his arm. "I'd made a connection with the victims' sister. She seemed to trust me. I was only trying to diffuse the situation before things escalated. That's all."

"You went inside, Sara," Nick looked at her with an expression of disbelief. "You didn't know how the woman would have reacted, or whether you were going to be able to stop her from continuing with what she wanted to do. You stepped inside a potentially volatile situation, and you were unarmed. That's something I've never done."

"When I turned up they told me she wanted to speak to me. I never planned it, I went with the moment," she tried to explain. "I did what I had to do. And everything worked out in the end."

"You could've been shot today, did you think about that?" Nick questioned.

"Maria didn't want to hurt me," she stated. "She wanted the man she thought had killed her sister to pay for what he'd done, which to me is understandable. All she wanted was justice for her sister. And she's got that now."

"Yeah, when we discovered the man who'd killed her sister wasn't the man she'd tried to kill," he replied, somewhat sarcastically.

"But she can rest easy now knowing the monster that murdered Anna is behind bars," she protested.

"Would it have been worth it had you been injured, or worse?"

"I really don't know why you're making such a fuss about this," she insisted, rolling her eyes. "It worked out alright in the end. Everyone's fine."

"I want you to be in work tomorrow, and everyday after that," Nick explained, though his voice was soft. "I don't want anything to happen to you."

"Right back at you," she flashed him a warm smile.

"We're suppose to look out for each other, suppose to have each others back. That goes for all of us, the whole team, but it's especially important when we're working a case together," he continued. "We've always got to have each others back, but I didn't have yours today."

"Is that was this is about? Do you feel responsible?" She wondered, giving him a puzzled look.

"I'd have felt responsible had anything happened to you," he answered, speaking the truth.

"You really shouldn't. This had nothing to do with you," Sara told him, trying to convince him that she was right.

"It was our case, Sara. It had everything to do with me," he maintained. "I should have been there."

"But you were trying to find the person who killed Anna. You were getting the DNA and tox results back. It's not like you weren't doing anything important; you were doing your job," she insisted. "And you being there wouldn't have made a difference because Maria wanted to speak to me, and that's why I was there."

"Are you really trying to tell me it would have been worth it?" Nick raised his eyebrows. "Saving just one person?"

"We can't save the world, Nicky," she stated. "Saving just one person won't change anything."

"Then why did you save Maria?"

Sara gulped, and inhaled sharply. "Because one person might not be the world, but to that one person it is the world, it's their world. And that is priceless. It's all we can do. If I can help just one person I've done my job right."

Nick nodded in agreement and understanding.

"Saving the world one person at a time, right?" She put on a false smile, taking deep breaths to try and stay calm. "That's all we can do."

"I can't believe you would be so stupid," he shook his head. "You could've been killed."

"You've said. I really thought we'd got past this," she rolled her eyes. "But I wasn't. I'm fine. It worked out fine in the end."

"But what if it hadn't? What if something were to have happened to you?"

"Well, then you'd know how it feels," she insisted.

"Excuse me?"

"You never think about anyone else when you're swanning off playing the hero," she started. "But we worry about you. I worry about. I worry that you're going too far, that maybe this'll be the time you come back in a body bag."

Nick looked stunned. "I had no idea..."

"That was kinda the point," she half smirked, half smiled.

"I'm sorry. I never meant to put you through that, any of you. If I would have known...," he trailed off.

"You wouldn't have done anything different, because it's just who you are," she smiled. "But it's okay. We care about you, that's all, and we don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to get hurt."

"Me neither," he chuckled.

"I'm sorry for today. But trust me, it won't be happening again if I can help it," Sara stated.

"That's what I always say," he smirked.

"Yeah, but I mean it," she pursed her lips to prevent a smile from taking over her face.

Nick smiled broadly, not even bothering to hide it. "What are we like, eh?"

"And we're no better for it," Sara sighed, nodding a little. "Why do we do it?"

Nick turned to address his friend, looking thoughtful. "I want to leave the world in a better place than how I found it, I guess. I know it's a big ambition but it's worth a shot."

She nodded, finding herself agreeing with him. "But we can't guarantee that."

"I'm gonna give it my best shot," Nick shrugged.

"You can do that perfectly well without getting yourself shot at," she insisted politely.

Nick sighed, rolling his eyes dramatically at her. She gave him a sharp shove in the side in return.

"It was kinda terrifying, though," Sara stated, letting out a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, it is," he agreed, trying not smirk at her. "Proper heart pumping stuff."

"I'm sorry. I never meant to worry you, or anyone else for that matter," she smiled weakly.

"I know. And for the record, I never mean to worry you either," he told her honestly.

"How about we make a deal?" Sara suggested. "I will never do that kind I thing ever again, if you promise to never do it either."

"Deal," Nick answered without any hesitation whatsoever.

Thank you for reading. Please review.


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